Mikulak and Doha Teammates Back for Winter Cup

Every six months, the United States men’s program likes to shake things up on the national team, and this weekend, we’ll see the first of the 2019 teams named at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas.

Headlining the competition is two-time Olympian Sam Mikulak, who won the first world medal of his career on high bar in Doha last year, and who will be expected to continue leading the team as we look forward to Tokyo.

This will be the first look at Mikulak since he won his world bronze, and he’ll be joined by the rest of his 2018 teammates in Las Vegas, including 2017 world bronze medalist Yul Moldauer, Akash Modi, Colin van Wicklen, and Alec Yoder, as well as alternates Allan Bower, Trevor Howard, and Marvin Kimble. The field will also see current senior national team members Cameron Bock, Kanji Oyama, Eddie Penev, and Genki Suzuki, as well as 19 members of the junior national team.

Qualifications will be held today, February 15, and from here we’ll see a total of 28 seniors and 14 juniors reach the finals, held on Sunday night. The seniors will advance to finals based on the men’s program points system, while juniors will advance based solely on their all-around ranking as it stands after the first day of competition. The senior all-around rankings will be determined on day one, with apparatus champions determined based on a two-day score, while the junior all-around rankings will be determined by a two-day combined total.

A total of 12 senior men will be named to the national team this weekend, with the top six all-arounders automatically making the team on day one, while the remaining group will join following the final day of competition.

A full list of rules for the Winter Cup, including how athletes were able to qualify, is available here, and we have a full list of all athletes expected to compete below. USA Gymnastics will stream all sessions of the competition on its YouTube channel, with the juniors competing Friday afternoon at 1 pm PT, the seniors competing Friday evening at 6:30 pm PT, and finals held Sunday evening at 7:15 pm PT.